Tag: tech

Beleaguered Chinese tech behemoth Huawei kicked off 2019 with a charm offensive, in a bid to counter damaging headlines that have hit the company in the past few months. In what appeared to be part of a significant public-relations push, the company offered international media a tour last week of its smartphone production factory in Dongguan, an area just north of its headquarters in Shenzhen. And then it took a group of reporters, including from CNBC, to a new campus being built to look like va

Beleaguered Chinese tech behemoth Huawei kicked off 2019 with a charm offensive, in a bid to counter damaging headlines that have hit the company in the past few months.

The company has often been criticized for being too secretive, but has tried to to open its doors more since the start of the year. That comes after the arrest of its CFO on allegations the tech giant committed fraud linked to the skirting of U.S. sanctions, a report that American authorities are probing whether the firm stole trade secrets, and moves from multiple countries to block Huawei’s equipment from sensitive infrastructure projects.

In what appeared to be part of a significant public-relations push, the company offered international media a tour last week of its smartphone production factory in Dongguan, an area just north of its headquarters in Shenzhen. And then it took a group of reporters, including from CNBC, to a new campus being built to look like various cities in Europe.

The biggest sign of Huawei’s new public positioning came later that day, when the company hosted a round table with Ren Zhengfei, the telecommunication equipment maker’s reclusive founder. Ren very rarely speaks to the media, let alone international publications, and is not often seen in public. He spent more than two hours taking questions from outlets including CNBC, addressing some of the allegations thrown at his company.

In that time, defense and tech stocks, have blown everybody out of the water. The S&P 500 tech, meanwhile, has spiked more than 37 percent in that time. Defense and tech stocks are not the only ones that have done well these past two years. The S&P 500 health care sector up more than 26 percent since Trump was inaugurated, led by a Nektar Therapeutics. NRG Energy, Netflix and Arista Networks round out the five-best performers in the S&P 500.

It’s been two years since Donald Trump was inaugurated as president of the United States. In that time, defense and tech stocks, have blown everybody out of the water.

The iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense (ITA) exchange-traded fund has surged more than 30 percent since Jan. 19, 2017. The S&P 500 tech, meanwhile, has spiked more than 37 percent in that time. Both sectors have easily outperformed the S&P 500, which is up 18 percent.

Gains in the ITA have been largely driven by surges in Boeing, AeroVironment and Aerojet Rocketdyne. Those three stocks have more than doubled over the past two years. Other high-flying stocks in the defense sector these past two years have are Axon Enterprise — which is up nearly 100 percent in that time — and Heico Corp., which has risen 97 percent.

In tech, Arista Networks is the best performer, surging more than 150 percent. Red Hat and Adobe have also more than doubled in that time, along with PayPal and Advanced Micro Devices.

Defense and tech stocks are not the only ones that have done well these past two years. The S&P 500 health care sector up more than 26 percent since Trump was inaugurated, led by a Nektar Therapeutics. The stock has almost quadrupled in that time, gaining nearly 280 percent, and is the best performer in the S&P 500. Abiomed, another health-care stock, is the second-best performer in the S&P 500, gaining about 200 percent. NRG Energy, Netflix and Arista Networks round out the five-best performers in the S&P 500.

Not all stocks have performed well over the past two years, however. The energy and communication services sectors are both down more than 13 percent in that time.

A group of Amazon shareholders has filed a letter demanding the company stop selling its facial recognition software to government agencies. The shareholders supporting the letter have over $1.32 billion worth of total assets under management, according to a press statement. This is one of the first organized movements by Amazon shareholders putting pressure on the company’s sale of facial recognition software. An Amazon spokesperson pointed to blog posts the company has written on the subject n

A group of Amazon shareholders has filed a letter demanding the company stop selling its facial recognition software to government agencies.

In a letter filed on Thursday, the investors are pushing Amazon to halt the sale of Rekognition, technology from Amazon Web Services that can identify and track people, citing concerns of potential civil and human rights risks.

The resolution was organized by Open Mic, a nonprofit organization focused on corporate accountability, and was filed by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, a member of the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment. The shareholders supporting the letter have over $1.32 billion worth of total assets under management, according to a press statement.

“Sales of Rekognition to government represent considerable risk for the company and investors. That’s why it’s imperative those sales be halted immediately,” Michael Connor, executive director of Open Mic, said in a statement.

This is one of the first organized movements by Amazon shareholders putting pressure on the company’s sale of facial recognition software. The American Civil Liberties Union first raised concerns of racial bias in the Rekognition software after conducting a test last year, and a group of employees also questioned the use of software during Amazon’s staff meeting in November.

An Amazon spokesperson pointed to blog posts the company has written on the subject noting that there are positive uses of facial recognition, including fighting human trafficking and preventing package theft. One of the posts noted that the ACLU’s tests used an 80 percent confidence threshold, which would provide more false positives than the 99 percent threshold that Amazon recommends “for use cases where highly accurate face similarity matches are important.”

AWS CEO Andy Jassy told employees during the November staff meeting that the company plans to continue selling Rekognition to government agencies, saying it feels “really strongly about the value” it provides to law enforcement.

According to the letter, Amazon has sold Rekognition to law enforcement agencies in at least two states, is in the process of pitching the software to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and now is testing it with the FBI. It says investors are concerned about Amazon’s software being used “to justify the surveillance, exploitation and detention of individuals seeking to enter the U.S., posing human rights risk.”

The group is hoping Amazon will put the resolution to a vote at this year’s annual shareholder meeting, which typically takes place in May.

Fossil is selling $40 million of smartwatch technology to Google, the company announced Thursday. Shares of Fossil jumped about 8 percent on the news. Fossil is one of the primary brands that continues to build smartwatches that run Google’s Wear OS software, which competes with the Apple Watch but has struggled to gain mass adoption among consumers. But Fossil said that smartwatches are its fastest-growing category. Fossil said the transaction is expected to close in January.

Fossil is selling $40 million of smartwatch technology to Google, the company announced Thursday.

Shares of Fossil jumped about 8 percent on the news.

Fossil is one of the primary brands that continues to build smartwatches that run Google’s Wear OS software, which competes with the Apple Watch but has struggled to gain mass adoption among consumers. But Fossil said that smartwatches are its fastest-growing category.

“The addition of Fossil Group’s technology and team to Google demonstrates our commitment to the wearables industry by enabling a diverse portfolio of smartwatches and supporting the ever-evolving needs of the vitality-seeking, on-the-go consumer,” said Stacey Burr, vice president of product management, Wear OS by Google.

Housing pledge driven by responsibility, gratitude, says Microsoft president12 Hours AgoMicrosoft President and chief legal officer Brad Smith joins CNBC’s “Closing Bell” to discuss Microsoft pledge of $500 million to tackle Seattle’s housing crisis. The pledge is the largest in the company’s 44-year history, and, according to the company, is one of the heftiest contributions by a private corporation to housing. The initiative comes as Microsoft and other tech giants that have driven the region’

Microsoft President and chief legal officer Brad Smith joins CNBC’s “Closing Bell” to discuss Microsoft pledge of $500 million to tackle Seattle’s housing crisis. The pledge is the largest in the company’s 44-year history, and, according to the company, is one of the heftiest contributions by a private corporation to housing. The initiative comes as Microsoft and other tech giants that have driven the region’s economic boom face increasing pressure to help mitigate affordable-housing shortages.

Apple’s former retail chief, Ron Johnson, told CNBC on Wednesday that the tech giant’s stock is still a great bet for investors in the long run. A self-professed Apple “fanboy,” Johnson attributes his confidence to the company’s consumer franchise, leadership, cash balance, and great products. In August, Apple became the first U.S. company to reach $1 trillion in stock market value. Apple’s a great buy.” Leading Apple’s retail division from 2000 to 2011, Johnson designed what’s considered among

Apple’s former retail chief, Ron Johnson, told CNBC on Wednesday that the tech giant’s stock is still a great bet for investors in the long run.

“I can’t imagine a better buy for your portfolio for the next decade,” said Johnson, founder and current CEO of Enjoy, which aims to merge online convenience with personal shopping services for tech products.

A self-professed Apple “fanboy,” Johnson attributes his confidence to the company’s consumer franchise, leadership, cash balance, and great products. He said he owns the stock. “I’m long. I love Apple.”

However, shares of Apple, which has been in the hot seat in recent months due to slowing iPhone sales growth, is down about 12 percent over the past 12 months and off more than 30 percent since its all-time in October. In August, Apple became the first U.S. company to reach $1 trillion in stock market value. Apple’s current market cap is a far cry from that at around $733 billion.

One of the factors that appears to be pressuring iPhone sales is Apple’s battery replacement program. According to a well-connected Apple insider Tuesday, the company replaced 11 million iPhone batteries for $29 each during the length of offer, which started a year ago after user complaints led Apple to admit that it slowed down the performance of older devices. Apple had predicted that it would replace between just 1 million to 2 million batteries.

But Johnson pointed to a silver lining in the results of the battery program. “Those 10 million didn’t upgrade their phone,” he argued. “Next year, they’ll be ready, right? Apple’s a great buy.”

Leading Apple’s retail division from 2000 to 2011, Johnson designed what’s considered among the best retail store strategies in the world. Before Apple, he was a Target executive for 15 years. After Apple, he served as CEO of J.C. Penney for what turned out to be a disastrous 17-months, which saw shoppers reject his radical store and pricing changes and saw investors flee the stock in droves.

William Barr told U.S. senators in his confirmation hearing for attorney general on Tuesday that regulators need to take a deeper look at the “huge behemoths” in tech. “The purpose of the antitrust laws, obviously, is to protect competition,” Barr, who previously served as attorney general in the administration of President George H.W. U.S. tech companies Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet and Facebook are five of the six most valuable companies in the world. Over the past year, lawmakers have c

William Barr told U.S. senators in his confirmation hearing for attorney general on Tuesday that regulators need to take a deeper look at the “huge behemoths” in tech.

“The purpose of the antitrust laws, obviously, is to protect competition,” Barr, who previously served as attorney general in the administration of President George H.W. Bush, said in response to a question from Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT). Barr said that competition is ultimately good for consumers, but he suggested that he needs to look more into the topic.

“At the same time, I’m sort of interested in stepping back and reassessing, or learning more about how the antitrust division has been functioning and what their priorities are,” said Barr. “I don’t think big is necessarily bad, but I think a lot of people wonder how such huge behemoths that now exist in Silicon Valley have taken shape under the nose of the antitrust enforcers. You can win that place in the marketplace without violating the antitrust laws, but I want to find out more about that dynamic.”

U.S. tech companies Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet and Facebook are five of the six most valuable companies in the world. Over the past year, lawmakers have called for greater regulation of the industry as privacy and platform manipulation scandals have rankled Silicon Valley. Executives from Facebook, Twitter and Google have all testified in front of congress, about what they’re doing to get back on track.

Barr made it clear in his testimony that he is interested in a number of issues pertinent to tech companies. In response to a question from Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) about the Justice Department’s role is in terms of working with the Federal Trade Commission to address anti-competitive behavior.

“I would like to weigh in to some of these issues,” Barr said. “I’d like to have the antitrust [division] support that effort to get more involved in reviewing the situation from a competition standpoint. I also am interested in the issue of privacy. And the question of who owns this data. And, you know, it’s not an area that I’ve studied closely or become an expert in. But I think it’s important for the department to get more involved in these questions.”

Barr acknowledged he still doesn’t have the solutions to these questions, including about whether the Justice Department has the authority to address alleged bias on online platforms. He said he’d “have to think long and hard before I said that it was really the stuff of an antitrust matter.” But he also expressed concern over the “network effects” that have allowed tech companies to become “so powerful that particular sectors could essentially be subsumed into these networks.”

Whoever is confirmed as attorney general could play a key role in shaping the enforcement of antitrust regulation in the coming years.

Barr is plenty familiar with the topic, as he recently battled the Justice Department over the proposed merger of AT&T and Time Warner, where he was a board member. As part of the merger litigation, Barr filed an affidavit saying he was disappointed in the “inexplicable” opposition by the Justice Department’s leadership given President Donald Trump’s “prior public animus towards CNN and this merger,” according to The Washington Post.

Barr has said that if confirmed he would recuse himself from the Time Warner-AT&T case. A lower court had approved the merger in June, but the Justice Department filed an appeal in July.

Hawley asked Barr if he sees “similar concerns” to those the Justice Department raised against the Time Warner/AT&T merger “regarding how Silicon Valley firms could use their market power and social media or search to discriminate against rival products or services and viewpoints.” Noting that his response “has no application” to the merger case involving AT&T and Time Warner, Barr answered, “yes.”

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One tech group is outperforming the rest of the market so far this year 3:53 PM ET Mon, 14 Jan 2019 | 03:28Software stocks are leading the tech sector, and broader market, in a strong start to 2019. Two software stocks illustrate how the group as a whole should continue its breakout, says Wald. “Also, mobile payments company PayPal, breaking through multimonth resistance in a difficult market tape — we think that is telling. The stock has surged 18 percent over that period in one of the best per

One tech group is outperforming the rest of the market so far this year 3:53 PM ET Mon, 14 Jan 2019 | 03:28

Software stocks are leading the tech sector, and broader market, in a strong start to 2019.

The XSW S&P software and services ETF has surged 7 percent in the past two weeks, better than the 3 percent gain on the XLK tech ETF and 4 percent advance on the S&P 500.

Ari Wald, head of technical analysis at Oppenheimer, says it makes sense to keep betting on the winners.

“We’re all about leadership as momentum investors,” Wald said on CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Monday. “Our overall macro view [is] that a premium is going to continue to get placed on these high-growth companies in a low-growth world.”

Some of the segment’s biggest names, including Adobe, Salesforce.com, PayPal and Microsoft, trade at an elevated valuation compared with the rest of the market. Salesforce, for example, trades at 54 times forward earnings, well above the S&P 500’s 15 times multiple.

Two software stocks illustrate how the group as a whole should continue its breakout, says Wald.

“First, the software company Salesforce made a higher low in December, while the rest of the market was selling off and fell to that extreme bottom,” said Wald. “Now, as the market turns higher, you’re starting to see Salesforce come out of the consolidation pattern it’s been in.”

Salesforce has added 4.5 percent in the past three months as the S&P 500 tumbled 6 percent. The company is still 8 percent off its October record high.

“Also, mobile payments company PayPal, breaking through multimonth resistance in a difficult market tape — we think that is telling. That’s the type of relative strength that we think you want to own,” said Wald.

PayPal has had an even better stretch over the past three months. The stock has surged 18 percent over that period in one of the best performers of the S&P 1500 software and services segment.

“I kind of want to stay defensive, and I really like Google,” Schlossberg said on “Trading Nation” on Monday. “It’s held pretty well in this very, very soggy tape.”

While Schlossberg says its advertising business continues to thrive, the real potential is in artificial intelligence.

“They are leaders in artificial intelligence,” he said. “Some analysts think there could be a $20 billion hardware business going forward for them in artificial intelligence. That’s a story that the market really isn’t fully appreciating.”

Alphabet has fallen 2.5 percent in the past three months. Its stock is in a correction, having fallen 17 percent from its record high set in August. Any drop of more than 10 percent from 52-week highs indicates correction territory. The company is now listed in the communications services S&P 500 sector rather than technology.

European banks are lagging behind the U.S. when it comes to embracing technology, according the CEO of leading fintech (financial technology) firm Finastra. The firm works with 45 of the world’s top 50 banks and has revenues in excess of $2 billion. Chief Executive Simon Paris told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Monday that U.S. banks had embraced fintech more rapidly than their European counterparts, and were already seeing the benefits of their earlier investments. “You see a big difference bet

European banks are lagging behind the U.S. when it comes to embracing technology, according the CEO of leading fintech (financial technology) firm Finastra.

The firm works with 45 of the world’s top 50 banks and has revenues in excess of $2 billion.

Chief Executive Simon Paris told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Monday that U.S. banks had embraced fintech more rapidly than their European counterparts, and were already seeing the benefits of their earlier investments.

“You see a big difference between the U.S. banks and the European banks, and I think that’s part of the reason why U.S. banks are at twice the level of return on equity over the Europeans,” he said.

“What the Americans are doing is investing very heavily in productivity and in the actual service itself, (and enabling) the customer journey. You really see that they’re getting improvements from those technology investments they made a few years ago.”

Paris also explained that certain areas of technology had been more widely adopted in the banking sector than expected. While technologies that improved productivity — such as automation — have been implemented on a wide scale, technology designed for the retail banking space has been slower to take off than expected, he said.

Part of the reason could be tied to the pain points emerging in China’s economy, Cramer said. “They export more than $500 billion worth of goods to the United States [and] only import … less than $200 billion,” he noted. But beyond that, a lot of these executives believe that the Chinese economy is much, much, much weaker than we think.” If the United States and China part ways, China could go into a recession, he said; the United States “may not even notice.” “See, it’s when, not if, because

Technology executives are telling CNBC’s Jim Cramer that they’re willing to endure short-term pain from the U.S.-China trade war in favor of the long-term payoff.

“When I went out to San Francisco last week, I heard the same thing from a surprising number of people in the tech industry who do not like President [Donald] Trump one bit,” the “Mad Money” host said Monday.

“What they said was ‘If we’re going to take on China, now’s the time to do it,'” he said. “They may not be fans of the president, but they’re on board with the trade war.”

Part of the reason could be tied to the pain points emerging in China’s economy, Cramer said. On Sunday, Chinese government data revealed that China’s overall December exports fell by 4.4 percent and imports sank by 7.6 percent year over year. The data also showed the largest trade surplus with the United States in more than a decade.

“This harsher-than-expected view … may be more realistic than you think” when it comes to how tech leaders feel about China’s unfair trade practices, Cramer said.

“I think it’s because the Chinese economy has never been more vulnerable than it is right now, and our economy has rarely been this strong,” he explained. “If we’re ever going to do anything about China, this is the perfect time. If we’re ever going to stop them from forcing our companies into dubious joint ventures that represent ridiculous technology transfers and often outright theft, this is the moment.”

And while no one in Silicon Valley wants to trigger a recession, “the consensus out there is that the Chinese may be forced to cave,” the “Mad Money” host said.

“They export more than $500 billion worth of goods to the United States [and] only import … less than $200 billion,” he noted. “China has a lot more to lose than we do. But beyond that, a lot of these executives believe that the Chinese economy is much, much, much weaker than we think.”

Cramer pointed to the various devices the Chinese government is using to keep its markets afloat, from one-year junk bonds to risky lending practices. If the United States and China part ways, China could go into a recession, he said; the United States “may not even notice.”

“The reality of the situation may be that China is teetering here, something that keeps coming up in behind-the-scenes discussions with anyone who examines the People’s Republic from a financial angle,” Cramer said. “The trade war is not about soybeans, people; it’s about balance sheets. And, believe it or not, our balance sheet is much, much, much, much better than theirs.”

And while trade talks between the two countries are allegedly still ongoing, Cramer doubted that something would get done before Trump’s next round of tariffs on China are instated in March.

“But, again, a surprising number of executives are willing to accept the pain, precisely because they know there can be real gain when the Chinese finally open their markets,” Cramer said. “See, it’s when, not if, because China’s economy is actually far weaker than people seem to realize. That’s why these execs want to press the bet, and you know what? I agree with them.”